GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

petrelet When I was a kid I thought this was a great movie! I was impressed by how it was more a straight sci-fi story than a monster movie at all. I liked the way it showed how exponential progression takes you from interesting lab effect to massive destruction with surprising speed. And I loved the energy of the climactic scene in the power plant.Well, through the magic of Youtube I just today saw it again after a space of 40 years at least. And the wonder wasn't there. On the science side ... what a jumble. I mean, science fiction pretty much automatically involves made-up stuff. But it ought not to involve throwing existing science into a blender. In MM, terms like "atom", "molecule", "electron", "monopole", and "nucleus" are interchangeable. Magnetism and radioactivity are confused throughout. At one point we are given to understand that nuclear fission can be induced by an electric current. And it's never clear to me why the dangerous aspects of the substance are so variable and unpredictable. Why is it ever possible to transport it, for example.On the plot side, scientists act very strangely. At one point an apparently British scientist puts a safety regulation ahead of the survival of the planet. The "A-men" of the Office of Scientific Investigation apparently have Lensman-level powers; at one point one of them orders all planes in the country grounded "on my authority." And then the action is interrupted here and there with discussions of whether Dr. Stewart's wife has gained enough weight in her pregnancy and whether they can get a house. I confess I had forgotten that whole subplot.On the other hand you may like it if you are willing to put up with these flaws for the sake of a scene with cool sound effects and electric arcs...

Robert J. Maxwell A routine but kind of amusing entry in the science-fiction series of the early 1950s. I missed the first half hour or so, so I'm filling it in from sequelae of the early events.Some ancient experimental physicist invents a new element with lethal powers. Like the man-eating plant in "The Little Shop of Horrors," it must be fed a certain amount of energy on a regular schedule, or it turns magnetic, attracts every metal in sight, and destroys life. So far, so good. Only the thing, which started off as hardly more than a pinpoint of matter, gets bigger with every meal. Soon it will be so big and so dense, it will throw the earth out of orbit and you know what happens next.And, man, this element is heavy. The movie is loaded with all kinds of scientific jargon. Most of it got by me. But I did catch the fact that the molecular weight of this thing is somewhere above one thousand. This brought me to instant alert, Darwinian points quivering. A cloud of half-remembered concepts drifted back into my ken from high school -- molar mass, molecular weight, Avogadro's number, isotopes -- but somewhere along the way they'd lost much of their semantic luggage. I think I can feel a molar mass right now with the tip of my tongue. It's right back there, see? It's been bothering me for a week, doctor.Anyway, I get the impression that this thing is pretty "heavy". There is also a suggestion that when the original physicist discovered this element, he pulled off a kind of slow-motion replica of the Big Bang, the instant when the universe was created out of nothing. The result of the Big Bang was a couple of "forces" like gravity and a horde of hydrogen atoms. That's okay, as far as it goes. But if the universe is everything that now exists, and if it's expanding, what the hell is it expanding INTO? Well, never mind that. The attempt to stop this thing from growing becomes frantic, along the lines of "The Andromeda Strain." The only way to stop it is to bombard it with more electrical energy than it can possibly absorb, so it chokes to death. The computer arrives at a minimum of 900,000,000 volts, which is an awful high figure. I mean, your brain only generates a measurable 10 microvolts. Well, that's about the average; I can't speak for any particular brain.The US has no such generator but Canada does, buried beneath the ocean depths in Nova Scotia. Canada reluctantly agrees to its use. The underground control room is about the size of a large living room and is filled with curious knobs, buttons, levers, and winches. Richard Carlson and his buddy, King Donovan, place the entirety of the dangerous mass in the death chamber and begin activating the Super Duper Generator. Does the plan work? Well, we're still here, aren't we?

ctomvelu1 Classic low-budget sci-fi thriller from the early 50s about a new element created through radiation that threatens the Earth's very existence. About a third of the movie is stock footage, including scenes from a very old German sci-fi flick, GOLD. The movie moves along at a fairly rapid pace, and scientific investigator Richard Carlson and partner King Donovan give it a bit of class. The monster is basically invisible, so any kids watching this back in the day must have been sorely disappointed. For adults, it serves as a Cold War-era cautionary tale. Check out the cars; they are hideous and hysterical at the same time. Filmmaker Ivan Tors made the wonderful GOG a year after this, and did plenty of TV work.

rick79robertson What a nice walk down memory lane! No saggy drawers or F bombs. If you like your sci-fi a little cheesy with some belly laughs, this film is perfect! The only thing that comes to mind that would have made this better would have been a cameo by Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi! This is NOT Oscar stuff here but it is enjoyable!!! There's lots of lightning and scientific jargon that makes you go Huh????? You also have the pretty young lady and all the crazy Doc Brown like scientists running around. This almost has a Frankenstein feeling to it. I watched this on TCM. It's nice there are still opportunities to see these movies made during the atomic/radiation scare days of the 50's. Pop the popcorn and sit back and relax and enjoy the corny special effects!